The Brunel Engine House is a building in Rotherhithe, South East London. It was designed by Sir Marc Isambard Brunel to be part of the infrastructure of the Thames Tunnel. The engine house held steam powered pumps used to extract water from the tunnel.
Further structural decay was prevented in 1975 by a charitable trust named Brunel Exhibition Rotherhithe. The building now contains a museum displaying information on the construction of the tunnel and the other works of the Brunels. Much work has been done on the site recently including a new mural on the shaft showing the tunnel shield and models of famous Brunel bridges incorporated into bench seating.
Change of Name
In 2006 the museum changed its name from Brunel Engine House to Brunel Museum and has started to expanded its exhibition to include other projects by Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Open House Weekend
The Brunel Museum takes part in this every year taking parties of people through the tunnel by normal service tube train with the co-operation of Transport for London. During the 2007 Open_House_Weekend 1,500 people were taken on tours of the tunnel by three guides leaving at 20 minute intervals. A typical tour is as follows
- 200m walk from the museum to Rotherhithe station
- Railway safety talk outside the station
- Board a train at Rotherhite and head North under the River Thames in the Western tunnel
- Alight at Wapping station
- Take the lift to the booking hall
- Walk down the emergency stairs inside the shaft back down to the South bound platform
- Board a southbound train and travel through the East tunnel
- Alight at Rotherhite and walk back to the museum
Unlike Rotherhithe, Wapping station uses the shaft as part of its construction so provides a good opportunity to demonstrate and describe its construction.
The Future
The museum has been undergoing building works this year (2007). This entailed removing the Rennie flat V steam engine (now to be found at Chatham Historic Dockyard) to create a larger exhibition space, a cafe and improved toilet facilities. With the closure of the East London Line in December 2007 for extensive upgrading the museum is hoping that the access shaft into the tunnel will be capped with a shelf at the bottom above the level of the trains. This will create a large new exhibition space for a large expansion of the museum. Transport for London are currently looking into the engineering works required and how they can be integrated with the East London Line refurbishment.
